ARTICLES ABOUT BUSINESS TAX BY DATE - PAGE 2

BERLIN (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Monday assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a long-standing champion of European Union budget rigor, that he aimed to accelerate growth while respecting deficit spending limits. Renzi last week announced a sweeping package of tax cuts, including 10 billion euros ($13.9 billion) in income-tax reductions, to help spur consumer demand, saying spending cuts and extra borrowing would fund the measures. "Italy is not asking to exceed treaty limits," Renzi told reporters after his a meeting with Merkel in Berlin.

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Wednesday that the government had approved 10 billion euros ($13.90 billion) in tax cuts for low- to middle-income workers and a reduction in business tax by the beginning of May. He said the income-tax reductions would be funded by a mix of spending cuts and extra borrowing room freed up in part thanks to falling bond yields. "The funding is fully programmed," Renzi told reporters at his first full press conference since taking power last month.

* Renzi says 3 percent deficit rule will be respected * Says plan to cut tax wedge will be announced Wednesday * Dismisses accusations of government disagreement, union threat ROME, March 9 (Reuters) - An ambitious Italian plan for tax cuts to be announced this week will respect European Union deficit limits, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Sunday. Before replacing Enrico Letta as the head of government last month, Renzi had said an EU rule that member states should not run deficits of over 3 percent of gross domestic product ceiling should be renegotiated.

SPRINGFIELD - House Speaker Michael Madigan played a little role reversal Thursday, proposing to cut in half the state income tax on corporations, a move that could further frame this year's elections along economic lines as Democrats try to stave off Republican efforts to win the governor's office and lessen their grip on the General Assembly. The call for a tax cut comes from the same powerful Southwest Side Democrat who only three years ago pushed through a major income-tax increase on individuals and companies and only last month decried that some companies “don't pay their fair share” in an attack on tax incentives requested by a few big corporations.

By Hilary Russ Jan 21 (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo laid out details on Tuesday of his plan for nearly $8 billion of property tax freezes and corporate tax cuts over the next five years. In presenting his $137 billion proposed budget for fiscal 2015 to lawmakers, Cuomo, a Democrat up for re-election this year, kept most spending relatively flat. Limiting state spending would lead to a projected $2.2 billion surplus within three years to help pay for tax programs and universal day-long pre-kindergarten.

Days before her 2014 budget address, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle's bid to balance this year's spending plan took a hit Tuesday when a judge ordered the county to stop collecting a tax on certain big-ticket items purchased outside the county. Cook County Circuit Judge Robert Lopez Cepero's ruling makes permanent a preliminary injunction against the tax he ordered in July. The tax targets individuals and companies based in the county who go elsewhere to save money on large expenses such as office supplies or equipment worth more than $3,500.

Republican governor candidate Dan Rutherford said Thursday that running mate Steve Kim would hold the title of business and jobs czar if elected but also said he is "hesitant" to use tax breaks and take part in bidding wars to lure companies to Illinois. At a downtown news conference, Rutherford formally introduced Kim, an attorney and unsuccessful 2010 GOP attorney general candidate against Democrat Lisa Madigan. Rutherford, the first-term state treasurer from Chenoa, sought to establish his campaign's central theme of improving the state's economic climate, announcing that his running mate would head a governor's office of "job creation and retention" if his team is elected.

More than 70 percent of the region's municipalities use tax incentives to attract business, but the vast majority of deals involve moves within the region, expansion of existing businesses or national firms expanding their markets, according to a study released Monday by a government-supported regional planning agency. "Only rarely did local incentives lure a firm from another state or assist a new business," the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning stated in the report's executive summary. Using incentives to compete with other communities runs counter to the type of collaborative regional planning envisioned in the agency's long-range plan, CMAP stated in the study, which examined tax increment financing, sales tax rebates, property tax abatements and Cook County property tax incentives.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If tax considerations played a role in Jeff Bezos' $250 million purchase of The Washington Post, he may need to reconsider his hands-off approach if he hopes to offset gains from other ventures with losses at the newspaper. In announcing the deal on Monday, the 49-year-old multibillionaire founder and chief executive of Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc told Post staff in an open letter: "I won't be leading The Washington Post day-to-day. " Bezos will stay in Seattle where he will focus on his day job as head of the world's largest online retailer.